


in among the secret things

by driedvoices



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-13
Updated: 2012-05-13
Packaged: 2017-11-05 06:37:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/403463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/driedvoices/pseuds/driedvoices
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the <a href="http://kh-drabble.livejournal.com">kh_drabble</a> Secret Santa '09. Axel tells a fairytale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	in among the secret things

Axel is not particularly fond of snow. Xion laughs when he shivers, and even with the hood up her smile is incandescent. 

"It's not that bad, you know," she says, trailing her fingers across the ground. Axel stares as two lines cross each other and he thinks that maybe she's writing her name, but she sweeps it away and watches the fine powder catch in the wind. 

"Not that good, either," he says, and grunts, pushing her out of the path of a Shadow before it lunges at her. They watch the black fade into the snow and she murmurs, "I knew it was there."

"Sure," Axel says, and his chakrams come flying back to him. "I used to know a story about snow, once."

"Really?" she asks, intrigued, "How did it go?" When she walks next to him, their arms brush, just slightly. 

"I don't really remember," he says with a sly grin. "It was a very long time ago."

"Maybe not so long," she replies, and they step into darkness. 

-

"There was something about a queen, I remember that much." She is a perfect imperfection against the white-washed walls, breaking the monotony of his room, and he looks at her when he speaks, though he can't see her face.

"A good queen?"

"A beautiful one." 

"That doesn't answer my question."

He laughs. "Maybe there's not an answer."

"I think there should be," she says seriously, and he feels his throat tighten. 

"There was a mirror, too," he continues, "but it never showed the person looking back in it as they should be. And the mirror broke apart and—"

"But what did it show, then?" Xion interrupts, head cocked curiously to the side. 

"I don't know," Axel says, and closes his eyes. "A different version of themselves, maybe."

"A variation on a theme," she muses, and Axel freezes. 

"Where'd you hear that?" he asks, and she says something about Demyx and music and water. When she asks if he'll keep going, he says, "I really don't remember much more. Maybe next time."

She leaves and he tries hard not to think _Roxas_ , and doesn't even let Sora cross his mind. 

-

"What happened after the mirror broke apart?" Axel jumps. She hasn't spoken to him all day, and he hasn't really been thinking about ice queens and magic mirrors under the sweltering Agrabah sun. 

"The shards pierced a little boy's body."

"Did he—die?" 

"No," Axel says with a slight grin. "This is a magic mirror, remember? It hit him in the eye and in the heart, so that he saw the world differently and felt everything all wrong, too."

"What about the queen?" 

"She found the boy and he loved her on sight." 

"But he didn't really love her, did he? The mirror made him see something different. What she might have been but wasn't." Axel scuffs his boot against the ground. 

"Maybe it was just a different part of what she was." 

Xion smiles at him. "You're right. I don't think you know this story well at all."

"Well enough," he argues, and pours sand in her lap. 

-

"What's a heart got to do with anything, anyway?" she mumbles, and he lets her rest her head on his shoulder.

-

"So the queen meets the little boy," she prompts and tucks her legs underneath her. "What does she do to him?"

Axel squints one eye open, not bothering to sit up on the bed. "She gives him a kiss."

"Why," Xion says, puzzled. She scoots closer to him on her knees. 

"There are a lot of reasons to kiss someone," he murmurs, and he thinks she sees her smile. 

"Tell me," she whispers, and he reaches up to push her hood back. 

"Once," he swallows, "to shield him from the cold." He feels cool, soft lips at his temple. 

"And once to make him forget," and they move south to his eyelid.

"And the third time?" she asks, and her hair brushes his cheek. 

"Oh, she doesn't do it a third time. That would kill him."

Xion laughs and presses her mouth against his. 

-

"Xigbar calls her poppet," Roxas muses, less than lightly, "and Saix calls her _it_." He looks at Axel out of the corner of his eye. "What do they know that I don't?"

Axel says nothing, just keeps on walking. 

"Or is it what _you_ know?" Roxas's eyes are wide and accusing. Axel flinches and lowers his gaze. 

"Right," Roxas says, "That's how it is, then." He turns to leave, but hesitates, chewing on his bottom lip. "You know," he starts, "you're the one who taught us what _friends_ were. Xion and me. You—you never gave me a reason to doubt you." The _until now_ is omitted but present. 

"Wait." 

He's never noticed how much Roxas looks like her before. Funny, because _shouldn't it be the other way around?_

-

"Surely someone would have come looking for him," Xion says. Her head is down, and her arms hang limp at her sides. 

"Someone did. His best friend, who loved him very much." 

"And I guess he fought witches and demons and everything else to get his friend back, right?"

"Yes," Axel replies, and his shoulder bumps against hers. She shudders. "But the boy couldn't leave the snow queen, you see."

"What bound him to her?" 

"She promised to let him go if he could spell 'eternity' out of shards of ice," he answers, "but how do you know _she_ wasn't bound to _him_?" 

"Axel," she says softly, looking away. 

"And I guess he didn't really want to leave, after all."

"Axel," and this is no longer a time for telling tales. "You know who—what I am." 

He nods and doesn't follow her when she walks away.

-

Xion never asks to hear the rest of the story. Happy endings don't suit her, after all; a heart of ice is still better than one that doesn't belong to you.


End file.
